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THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Exodus 22: 20‑26 1. Little Jessica was walking with her mother pass the corner of Dundas and Sherbourne and she noticed a homeless person begging on the side of the road. His clothes were torn and
he was unshaven. Mom she asked is that man also a child of God. Yes her mother replied, and we have to love him as God lov 2. Love God and Love your neighbor - that is what Jesus tells us in the Gospel. The first part as Jessica realized is easy. It loves a God, full of mercy, all beautiful, all powerful. It is a God who listens to me when I pray. It is a God who never turns a face away from me. It is a God who never threatens my comfort zone. Now loving my neighbor, that is a different cup of tea. .. Or a different kettle of fish. In my neighbor, I can see wrinkles and warts, bad breath and body odor, cracking corny jokes and bad puns, needless chatter or irritating silence. Need I go on? And Jesus tells me to love them. Sheesh ! But that is only the surface issues. 3. The reading from Exodus unfolds the theoretical and almost academic command of Jesus, “Love your neighbor.” It makes this clean and antiseptic command something real, messy and forces me out of my selfish shell. Strangers, foreigners are to be respected, not molested or taken advantage of. widows and orphans are to be defended. the poor are to be protected especially from money sharks and pawn brokers. There is to be justice for all and human rights must be respected. 4. Having unfolded for us how to love our neighbor that first reading goes on to give us the reason for treating the new immigrant with respect, dignity and not taken for a ride. The reason: “You have been there, you have suffered that.” - you too at one time were an alien. And you remember how you would have liked to have been treated. The second reason is that we must imitate God. God is full of compassion. No more need to be said. The fact that God was compassionate to YOU is secondary. When you see something of Sheer Beauty, it must not only be admired but if possible imitated. 5. As I reflect on this Gospel, I see many reasons why I have difficulty in loving my neighbor. I will like to limit myself to two of them, which seem to flow my human nature. 5a The First is the NIMBY syndrome. Not in my backyard - it comes from my selfishness. I would like to share with you an actual experience from an encounter with a Pro-life group. But it could very well have been “Against drunk drivers” “Against Pornography.” “Against drugs” Groups. This was a middle class neighborhood - not Rosedale on one side or RegentPark on the other side. It was a family oriented Crescent. There was neighborhood watch, no litter, no violence, no crime. They were a very Pro-life group. One of the families being pro-life meant more than writing letters to Members of Parliament, more than walking in parade with posters. It meant setting up a house when high school girls who got pregnant could come and stay and continue to do their schooling - until the baby was born. Suddenly this Pro-life group turned on this Family. This was a good idea, but it would be better if the house were at the other end of the town, Not In My Backyard. How I want to love my neighbor, but “From a distance” as Barbara Streisand would sing. Like little Jessica, I will love God and let God love these pregnant teenagers who do not want an abortion. 5b The second difficulty in loving my neighbor is my bigotry. That is a bad word and no one likes to be called a bigot - so let us soften it and say underlying prejudices. (But it is the same thing.) Recently I received an E-mail saying, Please send this to all your friends and those concerned. “Stick up for your Christian Values.” Hey, I thought I want to do that. The writer continued “We have to stand up for our Christian Rights. Enough is enough. We must tell the New Immigrants that this is a Christian Country. Nearly 50% are Catholics, for God sakes ! We should be able to wish one another Happy Christmas and Happy Easter - not just Happy Holidays. We must stick up for our values and not let it be watered down to suit others. We have to make the new Immigrants know before they reach our shores what they are entering: a Christian Country. On the surface it seems righteous indignation. However the tone was hardly Christian and the attitude created division: we versus them. It is fantastic how easily we can flood the air with this type of bigotry because we have the fast spreading tool called the E-mail. It is a pity that the First Nations and The Native Canadian only had smoke signals when Christopher Columbus came with Christianity and the sword and guns. And I think how Christian is Canada? if we spend as much time with Jesus as we do with Hockey and the World Series, with Canadian Idol and Survivor, with CSI and Desperate Housewives... we might have a more loving attitude towards everyone. Our E-mail writer was nothing more and nothing less than the Apostles James and John who wanted to bring Lightning and Fire from heaven on the Samaritans who treated Jesus with hostility. 6. To love God and to love my neighbor is not a simple or easy task. We could do it if we took the example of Jesus - talk less and love more. The second example he gave us was He spent 30 years of hidden and reflective life, before three years of Active Ministry in proclaiming the Kingdom. As my good mother told me, to keep the commandment to love our neighbor, “use your head when dealing with yourself, and use your heart when dealing with others.” - Hopefully a heart full of compassion and love, slow to anger and abounding in excuses for the short comings of others. God bless you all. |
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es him. Jessica thought for a moment, the
idea did not seem too attractive. Then her face brightened, “you know Mum, I know what I will do. I will love God and let God love him.” She had solved her theological dilemma.